I didn't understand this. If nobody you knew was involved in it, or adversely affected in any way, why do you care? I saw people crying after hearing the news. And when I asked if they knew someone who was killed or injured, they said, "No."

The way I see it is like this, if you do not know them or have never heard from them or met them, then you have no emotional connection to them. It is impossible to give even a single **** about every death, many people die every second, if we gave a single **** about every one of them society would break down and we would all die. So no it isn't just you, anybody with no emotional attachment to the victims and even a slight amount of common sense or logic would not cry over this.

I remember when I was in like 2nd or 3rd grade when this happened. Didn't know **** about the world because I had a house, parents who fed me and entertainment.
A couple of days after 9/11, while the news reporters kept talking about it, I remember asking my dad "Why does the news keep talking about it?"
The look he gave me...
Granted my dad is in the military, but still...I had never regretted my words more.

Having parent's in the military myself, the reaction they gave was more of rage than sorrow. I certainly wasn't happy when it happened either. And I also wanted any group of people who could have done such a thing dead. I just found myself unable to feel saddened by it, and nowhere near the point of tears.

I think some people were afraid of what it would bring with it. Some people believed that we were being taken over or going to war. A professor told me a story about what happened here on my campus the day of 9/11. He said that just twenty minutes after the attack, the power throughout the entire campus went out. (It turned out to be a suicidal squirrel). Well he asked his students what they should do to retaliate because they had all believed we were under attack. They all said that we should attack back, bomb the attackers. Then they all realized it was just a power outage. That class still haunts my professor because of the blood lust the class seemed to have.

It was the blood lust all of America shared that day. Don't misunderstand I didn't celebrate when I heard the news. And I was certainly among the people who wanted those involved gone. I'm not the greatest of human beings myself, but even I can respect human life. I just can't feel sad for every human life lost in the world. No one can.

You don't need to know somebody just because you think it's sad. Or if you think that 3000 people dying and only ca 10 000 caring (I don't know how many who knew them were) is totally normal. Then nobody should either care about those who dies in Africa, since we don't know them, we shouldn't care about how Greek people live in total poverty since we don't know them, we shouldn't care about 72 people who died in Norway 22. July, only three were not children cause we don't know them, we shouldn't care about those victims in Japan when the earthquake hit two years ago and all those who died and lost family members and friends, since we don't know them. we shouldn't care about anything tragic that has happened in any country, especially not your own, since YOU DON'T KNOW THEM

tl;dr Just because you don't know the victims, doesn't mean you can't have sympathy or feel sad about something horrible that has happened.

You misunderstand me. I didn't mean I didn't care at all. It was probably a poor choice of words. I recognize the loss of life. I recognize that it was a sad day. I just don't find that I should be brought to tears. The death toll of the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan were far greater than what happened in 9/11. But It was just an, "Oh a natural disaster kills thousands." All three were tragic, I am aware of that. But I didn't cry. And nobody else I knew cried for those lost in Japan or Haiti, even though the death toll was at least 5 times( the quake in Japan) greater. What set 9/11 apart?

Well for one thing, 9/11 was an attack on America itself for being America. It wasn't only an attack against America, but an attack against the West and a call out to peaceful Muslims to take up arms against the West. In other words, rise of radical Islam.

Also, it doesn't matter how many people dies in total to make the disaster worse. If a ethnic group of 3000 gets massacred, that's worse than a natural disaster since they died because of their ethnic background and not that they were just unfortunet to be victims of a natural disaster.

But I see that your main point is why people who don't know them starts to cry, right? Well, there's no perfect explanation for that exactly. One thing is that they feel empathy for those who have died in the tragedy. Others might have strong national pride and feel that a tragedy for some, is a tragedy for the hole nation, thus feeling sorrow. This is for example how I felt during 22 July 2011. I was in a different country at the time, and I sort of felt like I were betraying my nation by not being there when it all happened. It's stupid, I know, but that's how I felt. Even though the victims political views were just about the complete opposite of mine, I felt sad for them and that this had happened, almost to the point were I cried

Point is that people cry when something tragic happens. I mostly find that girls cry a lot more than guys, perhaps because they're more vulnerable than guys or that they show more empathy.

Anyway, I think I understand what you mean, and just because you don't cry, doesn't mean you don't care or anything, it's just that some people take tragedies harder on themselves than others do.

TL;DR People cry for different reasons like empathy. It's just a way for them to react on a national (or international) tragedy

It's because we are all human and we tend to associate others with ourselves . It sucks to except that when some one gets killed it' s cool and you shouldn't give a ****. It didn't happen to you that day it may happen in the future

It's called humanity... I enjoy joking about 9/11 as much as the next guy, but the fact of the matter is lots of innocent lives were lost that day, and if you were a child it may not have hit you the same, however, some people develop something called empathy as they age, all jokes aside it's what makes us human..

To be fair, if I broke down and cried when 3,000 people I didn't know left this life, I would cry until the day I died. I don't feel something like that brings to question my "humanity." It just had the exact same effect on me as every other death in the world I don't hear about.

I understand why you weren't too concerned with it. But think of it this way: The contiguous United States had not seen such damaging or destructive acts of war since the Civil War. Admittedly, there have been terrorists attacks and shootings here and fighting on other shores but we were experiencing a time where, behind our borders, we considered ourselves safe. Then some lowly group of extremists successfully infiltrate our country and transportation security well enough to kill thousands of people and destroy recognized landmarks. So I guess I'm saying the grief that was felt wasn't for loss (thought it was for some) but questioning whether or not we're truly safe in our own homes against a villain who most had never heard of before.

Honestly, if that's the case, they'd have been in a state of panic (and I'm sure many were) not crying their eyes out. I'm not denying that it was a serious event, and I agree with you. I find it was the loss of life that they cried for personally. But I can't deny a full range of emotions from different people.

I'm sure every negative emotion was felt that day. As for the the tears that were shed, you're right. Even if you didn't lose someone you knew, you cried tears of sympathy. I feel that the general hype that makes it such a sensitive issue now is that we're not reading about another nation being attacked; we're being attacked. It doesn't just happen in history books anymore.

i think the most people were scared and shocked by these events, because you couldnt know what consequences this would have at the time of the crash. many people were expecting a new war etc. i was 4, i just remember the shocked faces of my parents and the pictures on tv. and when i first saw all the pictures from this day when i was older, i felt the urge to cry too, the things that happened on the 11th september are horrible, it still makes me sad. maybe i am too empathic, but thats how i see it.

Let me ask, did you cry learning about any of the major wars in history? At what point does the past just become the past? Don't misunderstand either, I am not trying to convince you otherwise, I am just curious.

well, i think 9/11 was made more dramatic by the media, and we got more videos etc of it. watching real footage from every war makes me sad too, yes. also the things happen in the middle east right now, i watch and read a lot about it, but i still feel sad for the people.

I'm with you there. I didn't feel a thing when it happened. The same way I didn't feel a thing during the Sandy Hook shooting. It was just another day for me after I saw the news. Thats one of the many reasons why my friends say hell will be a paradise for me.

Do you cry for the thousands of deaths each day worldwide? I think I know the answer. I do not completely lack empathy, but 9/11 affected me no more than any other day in my life. For one day, the death toll jumped by 3,000. Comparatively, it was a drop in the bucket.

The only thing setting it apart from the rest of the world is the first and fourth bullet points. I do not deny it was tragic. Do not misunderstand me. I didn't mean that I didn't care at all. It was more the strength of the emotions people seemed to have. Tears as though they lost a close family member. I am not completely ignorant of the plight people face in this world everyday. But, I'll probably never shed a tear for people I don't know. And that seems to make sense to me.

ehh, lets chock it up to different points-of-view then. Neither really more valid that the other.
Personally, I was very young when it happened, and I don't remember a lick of it, so i can't honestly speak for others, but I can see what you are saying as well as why others would cry.

Ignorant to what, may I ask? I know of the event. I know the death toll. I DON'T know the exact number of people who die each day all over the world. I DO know it's more than 3,000. For one day, 3,000 more people I don't know disappeared, and it still doesn't affect me.

Sure I didn't cry but I was scared because both my parents were around that area when it happen. Luckily they didn't die or were trapped or anything but I still felt sad because a lot of my friends family members were hurt/killed.

That wasn't the point I was trying to make. It was the people who I asked if they had any relation with those lost and the answer was, "No." You had a legitimate reason to be concerned, but were still not brought to tears. Your concern was with friends of the family. Question is, "Did you feel any overwhelming concern for the others in and around the towers?"

It's because people like to go up in the mass.
I mean, let's be realistic. Why should we even remotely 'feel' for people we have never met, never saw, or aren't even remotely related with?
If we come into contact with fictive characters, follow them, see them die at one point, we cry. Because we 'knew' them. If you know someone, you will feel sorry for them, you'll feel their loss.

If you don't know them, then what does it matter? It could be fake, it could be real, we don't know, it didn't happen inside our world.

Similar with the concept of the holocaust: so many people died, is that sad? Well, I don't know. Part of me thinks, damn, so many people got killed, that's awful. A different part of me knows however, that I have no connection at all with the holocaust, nor know anyone who was affected by it, hence, I don't really care.

Humans just enjoy going along with the mass, to get attention and feel good, even when feeling bad. We're simply put a very strange race.

I live in Jersey and everyone went ******* crazy on 9/11. My mom pulled me out of school because my dad worked in NYC then and she thought of packing up all our **** and getting out of the US
Then my dad showed up and called her a retard for not calling his cell phone to see if he's alive

>be in second grade
>live in D.C. on 9/11
>kids keep getting called home from school
>by lunchtime i'm the only kid left in my class
>feedsbadman.jpg
>teacher doesn't know what to do with me
>gives me smelly stickers and lets me watch the lion king
>9/11 would do again

>Be 8
>Wake up, parents tell me there is no school
>Go to watch TV but its filled with planes hitting buildings
>"IDGAF about this"
>Find one of my VHS recordings of Bill Nye
>BILL BILL BILL BILL the rest of the day
>9-11 would do science again